The nonprofit connected to artificial intelligence purveyor ChatGPT is giving $60,000 to a Southside organization to build AI skills in the region.
The OpenAI Foundation last week announced the first recipients of its $50 million People-First AI Fund, designed to help nonprofits strengthen their communities and expand AI opportunities. Among the 208 grant winners is the South Boston-based SOVA Innovation Hub.
The money is equal to 10% of the hub’s $600,000 annual operating budget, said Tad Deriso, president and CEO of Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp. The internet service provider, MBC for short, teamed with Microsoft to develop the SOVA Innovation Hub, which opened in 2021.
The hub houses meeting spaces, co-working spaces and the Microsoft Experience Center, which showcases technology germane to the Southside economy. Other SOVA Innovation Hub programs include Evolve, which helps nonprofits improve their efficiency, and RISE, short for Regional Investment in Startups and Entrepreneurs, said Liz Smith, marketing manager for MBC and an innovation hub team member.
Organizers will use the OpenAI grant to found SOVA AI Connect to help “rural residents, small businesses, schools, farms and nonprofits build practical AI skills through workshops, demonstrations, civic innovation challenges, and job-skills training,” according to a news release.
SOVA AI Connect will be an extension of MBC’s original mission. The nonprofit ISP was founded in 2004 to use money from the Virginia Tobacco Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration for broadband deployment.
“I think it’s really interesting when you look at the infrastructure we’ve put together, kind of building the digital highway to make these things happen,” said Deriso, who was MBC’s first employee. “And one of our mantras early on and our guiding principle has always been, level the playing field. … There shouldn’t be a rural penalty to have broadband. It’s just insane.”
AI presents yet another opportunity for rural Southside, Deriso said.
“It’s this new technology, and if you look at media, sometimes it’s like, Oh, it’s going to take our jobs or it’s the end of the world or whatever. But there’s a lot of good that can come out of that. And we want to be the ones that say, hey, we’re a trusted partner, we’re a trusted voice in the region.
“Let us be able to train you. Let’s talk about the ways to use it responsibly, creatively. What are some ways that we can just help people kind of get over the fear factor and actually start to use it?”
The first program will be Generative AI for Business Impact, in tandem with Microsoft and accelerator company gener8tor — the latter having shepherded multiple SOVA hub cohorts through project management, data analytics, IT and other training tracks.
Deriso discovered the grant opportunity earlier this year on a business trip to California. AI was among the topics, and a meeting participant joked, “OpenAI is a nonprofit. You guys are a nonprofit. Why aren’t you all worth billions of dollars?”
It sparked a laugh and curiosity, Deriso said. He began surfing the OpenAI website, focusing on its nonprofit arm, and discovered a post touting the People-First AI Fund. In September, an MBC team put together an application “with a little help from Chat GPT,” making the Oct. 8 deadline, Deriso said. Then came the Wednesday announcement.
“Fastest grant thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said of the small application window and quick turnaround time.
The foundation distributed $40.5 million and will release $9.5 million more in the coming months, according to the OpenAI news release.
The announcement’s recipient list includes one other organization — Arlington-based Educacion Para Nuestro Futuro Founded By Escuela Bolivia — located solely in Virginia. Several other entities, such as the Rural Opportunity Institute, the Center for Common Ground, the News Literacy Project and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and Veterans for All Voters, include Virginia among the states they serve.
Deriso said he believes it is the beginning of a relationship with the foundation.
“People love investing in successes, and that’s why I think Microsoft is here,” he said. “People invest in Southern Virginia because they see good things coming out of it. And I think this is just the first of many opportunities we have to work together and if anything, just getting visibility into rural Virginia and what OpenAI is helping to do, that’s a pretty big deal, we think.”